Harry Potter and the Usual Title
by feast of fiends
Summary: 5th year, after DOM, Harry realizes that he only needs one thing to be happy, and that thing is Hermione.  H/HR will be slowly updating when I have time, please review!


Harry Potter & the Usual Title

Disclaimer: I don't own any part of the harry potter universe, if I did would I be writing this for free? Also Harry would be with Hermione, not Ginny, and Ron would be forgotten after he left them during the camping trip from hell. So obviously I don't own it. Don't Sue Me; I have nothing you would want anyways.

Harry Potter, the Boy-Who-Lived, stared at the older man standing before him. He was staring at the wizened headmaster like the old man was crazy, which to be fair, was probably true. Albus Dumbledore had just shown Harry the prophecy concerning him and the Dark Lord known as Voldemort. The prophecy was the reason that Sirius was dead. It was also the reason that the girl he had loved since first year was lying grievously injured in the hospital wing.

He had been gullible, he should have used the communication mirrors to contact Sirius, and if he had listened to Hermione about it being a trap, nobody would have gotten hurt.

At that moment, he realized that he didn't need Dumbledore to guide him if he wasn't going to be forthcoming with information. He also realized that he didn't need a jealous fair-weather friend. All he needed was Hermione Jane Granger, she had never abandoned him, even when she was positive he was wrong, she had never led him astray, and most importantly she had supported him even when nobody else wanted to be in the same room as him.

Harry, getting impatient with the old fool, spoke up "May I please go and check on my friend in the hospital wing? I'm really worried about her, she was badly injured, and I want to be there when she wakes up so I can…" Harry didn't finish because he had just looked at Dumbledore's face, it had been contorted with rage for a brief second, but Albus thought Harry hadn't noticed, so he tried to correct Harry by saying "My dear boy, I do believe that you meant to ask if you could go visit your friends, you made it sound as though you only have one friend who is currently in the pleasant care of Mme. Pomfrey."

Harry realizing that the headmaster must have been trying to influence him said, "Of course, you're right professor, I just wanted to check on them and had forgotten that Neville and Luna were there with Hermione."

Once he had finished speaking, he promptly left the Headmasters office, and headed straight to the hospital wing. He was planning on telling Hermione how he felt, because he almost hadn't gotten the chance, and how he had felt when he almost lost that night. He realized that he wouldn't be able to go on without her in his life. When he got to the hospital wing, Harry saw Hermione all covered in bandages, not moving at all. Immediately, Harry began to fear the worst and ran over to her, and softly called out, "Mione? Are you alright; I won't be able to go on if you're hurt because of me."

As soon as he said this her eyes shot open and she pulled him in for a hug, which to her immense pleasure he reciprocated, "Shhh… Of course, I'm alright Harry. Madame Pomfrey healed me in about a second. However, the real question is how are you doing, Harry?"

This confused him, as she was the one who had been grievously injured, not him. And he voiced that confusion, "What do you mean, Mione? You are the one laying the hospital wing, not me; however I see how you hate it when I'm here, its nerve wracking worrying about the person who means the most to you. But I am fine, I mean sure I fought against Bellatrix and Voldemort, but for me that's par for the course. Dumbledore rescued me again, although I am not sure how much I trust him or Ron anymore."

"First of all Harry, I meant how you are doing about Sirius, I found out from Neville that he fell through the veil. I am so sorry that you didn't get the relationship that you were supposed to have with him. Can I assume that, that is the reason that you no longer trust Dumbledore?"

"Oh, that, well, I, uh.., I … just can't believe that he's dead. I mean, I saw him fall through the veil. It just happened so fast, I'm still expecting him to pop up from somewhere and say that it was just some sick joke, but I know he's gone. And to answer your other question, yes, that is precisely why I don't trust him anymore."

Hermione began chewing her lips in a way that Harry thought was just adorable. That line of thinking reminded Harry of what he originally wanted to tell Hermione. So gathering up his Gryffindor courage, he started, "Hermione, when you got hit by that curse from Dolohov, I went crazy. I thought you were dead, and it was like my world had ended. But then Neville told me that you were breathing. In that moment, I decided that I needed to tell you how I felt about you; because if you died, I would be lost. I love you Hermione, I always have, even in third year when you told McGonagall about the Firebolt. Seeing you at the ball last year, it was like a slap in the face. I had wanted to ask you, but I thought Ron was going to. But I'm getting off track. I need you Mione, if you don't feel the same about me as I do you, that's fine, but please don't ever walk out of my life… I'm sorry; I just needed to get that off my chest…"

When he looked back at Hermione, her eyes were glistening and she was smiling as she pulled him into a tight hug and whispered into his ear, "I love you too, Harry, but why would you think that I wouldn't return your feelings, after all when have I ever abandoned you?"

Harry was shocked, she loved him, and she was the first one to ever say that to him that he could remember, and he started to cry. Hermione told him to just let it out. When he was done crying he asked "Does this mean that you would like to be my girlfriend?"

Hermione just looked at him like he was a complete raving lunatic, and said, "Of course, it does. This means, of course, that you have to meet my parents, but they will love you. They have been asking me since first year if I could get you to spend a summer with us, but Dumbledore always interfered saying you wanted to go to your relatives' house for the entire summer. Now, of course, I know that is probably a lie, but we believed it at the time."

Harry was shocked to say the least, he had asked Dumbledore why he had to go home, and he told Hermione what the old man had said, "I hate my relatives, Mione, why would I want to go there, Dumbledore told me today why Voldemort comes after me, but we can talk about that later, in a more private setting. But he also told me why I have to go to the Dursleys every summer, I have to go because there are a set of blood wards there, because of my mom's sacrifice they would only work if I went somewhere my mom's blood resided, so every summer I have to go back to Durzkaban, to recharge the wards for the rest of the year. If you had asked me if I wanted to go, I would have agreed in a heartbeat, I don't even call that place home, it's just a prison and slave labor camp to me."

As soon as he said that there was a deep gong-like sound, and Harry realized he had just collapsed the wards around Privet Drive. But more importantly he realized that there was no nothing stopping him from staying with Hermione.

She must have realized this as well because she said, "Well, this year we just won't ask Dumbledore, I'll just tell my parents that you agreed to stay with us the whole summer. Just let me check myself out of here, and then we can go to the owlery to write them a letter."

So Hermione got up, pulled on jeans and a hooded jumper, and took Harry's hand, and led his to the portrait of the Fat Lady. When they opened the portrait hole, they were surprised to find Professor McGonagall waiting for them. When she saw them the Scottish woman walked up and Harry a Prefects Badge saying, "Mr. Potter, I believe that you deserve this more than Mr. Weasley does. In fact, if Dumbledore had not over ridden my decision, you would have had this all year, however he has changed his mind due to Mr. Weasley completely neglecting to perform any of his Prefect duties successfully. So I told him to give you the badge, or I would bring this matter before the Board of Governors. Congratulations, Mr. Potter, you have earned this."

Hermione squealed and kissed him on the lips. This caused McGonagall to clear her throat before saying, "Ms. Granger, I trust that you can brief Mr. Potter on his duties. I also trust that the two of you will stay out of the broom closets."

She turned and left the two very red-faced teens behind.

Hermione gave Harry another quick hug before heading over to a table to begin writing the letter to her parents. As Harry walked over to join her, he thought about how much better his would be now that Hermione was his girlfriend. It looked to be good, very good indeed.


End file.
